Face of Hope: HIV+ Charlie Sheen Promotes New Condom

Charlie Sheen is endorsing a new condom he claims will protect people from STIs without reducing sexual pleasure.

The 50-year-old actor announced last November he had been battling HIV for years and admitted he caught the virus as a result of 'irresponsible' se.xual behaviour.

Speaking in an interview shortly afterwards, he admitted he 'should have been more responsible and more concerned for myself' in the years of wild se.x and hard partying when he contracted the virus.

Now, he has become the face of a product touted as the 'first major innovation in condoms for 70 years'.

Charlie Sheen, Now the Face of New Condoms

The LELO HEX was created in order to address the most common complaints people have with condoms today – that they reduce pleasure, slip frequently and break too easily.

Rather than regular latex, it is made from hundreds of tiny hexagons - like a wire mesh or a spider's web. LELO claims the new material makes it virtually impossible to break - and as it clings to the person wearing it, it doesn't slip or reduce sensation.

The new condom is also said to be the first step forward since the reservoir tip - the bulge at the end of the condom - was invented.

Sheen hopes the new contraceptive will reduce the stigma around condoms and prevent STIs from being spread.

In a promotion video for the product launch, he said: 'People associate the word condom with less pleasure, with less connection. 'What might feel like five seconds of an inconvenient or thwarted moment can potentially spare a lifetime of grief and suffering.'

What might feel like five seconds of a thwarted moment can potentially spare a lifetime of grief and suffering. 'It’s a dialogue people don’t want to have.'

He added: 'It's uncomfortable, it’s awkward. It comes from the fantasy belief that "it won’t happen to me" and that’s something that I can speak to – I pretty much felt the same way.

'When I went public with my HIV diagnosis the searches went up by millions. People started coming out of the shadows and walking through the fear and that was powerful.

'When I heard that I was proud to have turned something so negative and life destructive and change it into healing.

'There's an odd combination that people want to be like me and they want my life. But there’s a little detail they want no part of so they can avoid it by using this.'

Speaking at the launch of the new condom in New York, he noted the irony that - given his background - he was now promoting safe s.ex.

He said: 'What the hell is a guy with five kids and HIV doing selling condoms? It begs the question, ‘shouldn’t this guy be buying condoms instead?’ Trust me I adore and cherish all of my children. - Online Sources